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Some Quebec stores head to court over language laws

AW

By Allan WoodsQuebec Bureau

Mon., Oct. 22, 2012timer4 min. read

MONTREAL—A half-dozen of Canada’s best-known companies are taking Quebec’s language police to court next month over demands that they change their names and store signage so that it is more welcoming to the province’s French-speaking majority.

Gap, Best Buy, Old Navy, Costco, Walmart and Guess are challenging what they contend is a frivolous interpretation of Quebec’s language laws after a campaign launched in November 2011 to ensure company signs and names complied with the rules.

“The legislation in question . . . has not changed for 35 years. What has caused consternation is this new interpretation of the (Office québécois de la langue française),” said Diane Brisebois, president of the Retail Council of Canada. “What shocked everybody is that it’s not reflective of what the office has been asking companies to do over the last 35 years.”

When the compliance campaign began last fall, letters began arriving in the mail and inspectors started showing up at stores with options for companies to adhere to the law.

The businesses were told they could register a French version of their name, turning a sign that reads “Best Buy” into something like “Meilleur Achat.” Another option was to add a descriptive French word to the store signs in Quebec, supplementing the English name with a larger French version or attaching a French slogan beneath the English name.

Other companies have complied in the past. The Bay, in Quebec, is La Baie. Scotiabank is Banque Scotia. Mountain Equipment Co-op store signs include the tag line, “la coopérative de plein air” (the outdoor co-operative).

But many businesses along Montreal’s bustling Ste-Catherine St. will be closely watching the outcome of the court challenge, which will be heard on Nov. 22. Many French-speaking residents of the province will be watching, too.

Statistics released by the Office québécois de la langue française, indicate that 46 per cent of the more than 4,000 complaints it received in 2011-12 were related to store signage, and 64 per cent of those complaints were made in Montreal.

The recent provincial election campaign, which brought Premier Pauline Marois’s sovereigntist Parti Québécois to power, featured a vigorous debate about the increasing use of English in stores and promises to toughen French-first language laws.

The Quebec national assembly has not yet reconvened, but PQ ministers are already talking about laws to block francophones from attending English-language junior colleges, known as CEGEPs, scrapping English-language instruction for the early years of primary school so that students can focus on reading and writing in French, and applying the language law, known as Bill 101, to daycares.

Yet it was under former premier Jean Charest’s Liberal government that the new push by the language police began. Brisebois said the PQ had, if anything, been eager to find a solution, acknowledging the fact that all the companies have been operating in Quebec for years, they hire French-speaking employees and they have always tried to respect the law.

“I think some of them wanted to understand how this had all happened,” she said.

Now that the case is headed to court, all talk of compromise is off.

“The word ‘middle ground’ is probably not appropriate, because the point of going before a judge is to get clarity. After the judge rules, then the companies will have to determine the next step,” Brisebois said.

Martin Bergeron, a spokesman for the language watchdog, said concerns about English signage in Quebec predates the November 2011 compliance campaign.

“That’s the moment where we really put the issue out in the public in a more forceful way,” he said.

But in the political arena, Quebec’s provincial parties are lining up against the multinational corporations, and the French-first advocacy group Société St-Jean-Baptiste has called for a boycott of the popular chains to make them comply with provincial laws.

Liberal MNA Christine St-Pierre, Quebec’s former culture minister, recalled in an interview with Montreal’s La Presse last week that efforts to resolve the “priority” matter were in vain when she was in government. Suggestions that the firms add a generic French term to their English names were rebuffed.

“We weren’t asking them to lose their identity,” she said.

But Brisebois said the companies are fighting for the principle of a fair application of Quebec law versus one that they see as frivolous.

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“It’s one thing to say, ‘We’d like you to do it.’ It’s another thing to say, ‘That’s how we’re interpreting the law now,’ ” she said. “When you’re saying this is how you’re interpreting the law now, you’re opening the door to a bunch of other interpretations.”

She also acknowledged the raw nerves that are often exposed when Quebecers get into a fight about language.

“What’s most important for these companies is for consumers to know that they respect them, that they invest heavily in Quebec and want to continue to grow in Quebec,” Brisebois said. “That is an important message that has not been heard loud and clear but certainly will be in the weeks to come.”

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